This morning I read the introduction of a great book, Brave Enough by Cheryl Strayed. I underlined, highlighted, and wrote a few notes (again) in a different color pen than I had in the previous reads.
Here are the notes that popped out.
“Love many, trust few, and always paddle your own canoe.”
The following quote she recalls from a book called A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L’Engle:
“Maybe you have to know the darkness before you can appreciate the light.”
Back the Cheryl Strayed…
“I’m always with you.”
BE HERE NOW.
“I think of quotes as mini-instruction manuals for the soul… I believe in the power of words to help us reset our intentions, clarify our thoughts, and create a counternarrative to the voice of doubt many of us have murmuring in our heads — the one that says You can’t, you won’t, you shouldn’t have.”
Conversations we have with ourselves usually turn out to be conversations other people are having with themselves, too.
“Most of the quotes included here feel to me more like conversations I was having with myself that turned out to be conversations other people were apparently having with themselves, too. For every quote in this book imploring you to accept and forgive and be brave (enough), to be kind and grateful and honest, to be generous and bold, Im imploring myself to do the same. In other words, I’m not trying to be the boss of you. I’m attempting to be a better boss of me. These quotes are who I am, yes, but they’re also who I’m trying to be - a person I fall short of being on a regular basis.”
WE ARE ALL VERY MUCH STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS.
Never give in…
“The best quotes don’t speak to one particular truth, but rather to universal truths that resonate — across time, culture, gender, generation, and situation — in our own hearts and minds. They guide, motivate, validate, challenge, and comfort us in our own lives. They reiterate what we’ve figured out and remind us how much there is yet to learn… they lift us momentarily out of the confused and conflicted human muddle. Most of all, they tell us we’re not alone. Their existence is proof that others have questioned, grappled with, and come to know the same truths we question and grapple with, too.”